A Friday night game that didn’t end until close to midnight means much media coverage — beyond ESPN — results in not nearly the number of news stories this kind of game would usually produce. Add in the opening ceremonies of the Vancouver Olympics and it goes down furthe. As a further aside, I am so glad I didn’t get talked into DVRing the game to let the wife watch the opening ceremonies on the big HD TV. Even with a 1/2 hour extension of taping, it would have been short.
Was this the game of the year (at least to this point)? I’m inclined to doubt it since there are too many games left. Plus you never make that judgment right afterwards. That said, I sure won’t argue against it.
Fun fact. Bob Huggins is yet to beat Pitt at the Pete. Before the game, Huggins did his best to play the, “no game is bigger than another,” card.
“All (a win) means is we still have three losses and we’re still two games behind (Syracuse and Villanova in the standings),” Huggins said. “We don’t try to get too up or down or make any game bigger than the other.”
“I’ve done this for 30 years, man,” West Virginia coach Bob Huggins said, asked if he could remember a game with so many swings. “There isn’t much I haven’t seen.”
A very interesting little factoid in that article.
The Butler Couldn’t Do It
Da’Sean Butler scored a game-high 32 points for West Virginia, but it was not enough. Butler was slowed by Pitt’s Jermaine Dixon in regulation, then scored 15 points in the overtimes after Dixon fouled out.
*13-18 FT
| 17 | 2 | |
| J. Dixon | Rest of Team | |
| FG | 1-9 | 8-13 |
| Points |
Butler also scored 13 points in the first half. During the liveblog, it can be easy to miss some of the individual defense being done. I know I was more frustrated with Dixon’s offense. When Dixon fouled out, Butler caught fire again. Butler went and scored 12 straight points for WVU in the second and third OTs to carry the ‘Eers. I’m so glad he’s a senior.
WVU players were less jaded than their coach after the game.
“This is definitely one of the toughest losses I’ve had,” Bryant said.
“The feeling in my stomach is sick; it is disgusting,” said West Virginia point guard Darryl “Truck” Bryant. “We’re up seven points, with a minute left — that’s a game we are supposed to win every single time and we didn’t. We missed free throws, turned the ball over, there is no reason for it — we’re supposed to win that game.”
That much, Huggy-Bear can agree.
“When you miss free throws and fumble it around like that, you allow the other team to stay in the game,” West Virginia coach Bob Huggins said. “And then, we turn it over and everybody in the gym knows they want Gibbs to shoot it — including our guys — and we let him shoot and tie the game.
“Give Pitt credit, they didn’t fold and continued to play hard, but they couldn’t have won this game without a lot of help from us. I mean, when a team comes back like that, they have to get some help from the other team, and we gave them a lot of help.”
The biggest help was the missed free throws late in regulation that could have made it impossible for Pitt. The turnovers, missed baskets and bad defense by Hoopies hurt them, but that all still required Pitt to do what it needed to do. Missing three straight front end’s of one-and-ones in the final minute.
No doubt, if Pitt had been on the other end we would be totally on the issue of how Pitt gave the game away. However, since Pitt came out on top, we can go with the good stuff of how the team dug deep, never quit and just through the superior will and character of being Pitt, beat the Hoopies.
“I’m very proud of our guys and how they battled,” Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said. “Hopefully, we can learn something from this and build off it.”
In front of a sold-out crowd and a national television audience, Pitt, which trailed the entire second half, rallied from a 66-59 deficit in the final 50 seconds to force overtime.
…
“I didn’t think we would never have a game like Louisville in the same season,” junior forward Gilbert Brown said. “But we did it tonight. It’s the greatest comeback ever since I’ve been at Pitt. The way we fought back at the end of regulation was just huge. This goes down as one of the greatest.”
Perhaps just as importantly, the game helped the players get some of their swagger back.
“We needed a win like this to make us believe we could do this again,” said Pitt’s Gilbert Brown, talking about a recently snapped stretch in which the Panthers lost four of five games.
Briefly, about the fans. There really wasn’t much of a concern it seemed. So, the praise for behaving seems a little silly. Even sillier, before the game, WV homers pretended to be concerned because Pitt was not concerned. The winner, though, goes to a WV writer who actually wondered aloud if Hoopies would try to make Pitt fans look just as bad.
Quick question: Does a WVU fan buy a Pitt shirt and attend tonight’s game and pick a moment to throw stuff on the floor? Hypothetical, that’s all.
Outstanding.
